presentation the next presentation will explore the power of the crowd collecting verifying and presenting data from Russia walls in Ukraine in inferior and the speakers Eric told is a staff member at Bowling Kevin contributed to the room that echo Project on Global Voices here Republica Eric told but

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at the end of patterns puppets on a higher might have always give models and

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monitor taller and with Boeing gets which I'll talk about who we are various a little bit but became talk about as you see here open secrets the war Russia's war English train and Russian and talking about when we talk about crowdsourced information verifying collecting publishing and presenting information from just the the hordes on the Internet of People with what a lot of free time it so the war in Ukraine is you may not thought about but it is the 1st European war offers a long time but the 1st European more with the ubiquitous presence there everyone Ukraine level of most people in Ukraine have a phone with a camera and usually a smart and Russia they'll do they have 4 G LTE there in Ukraine it's blanketed with 2 G and 3 G Internet this is totally changes how you can collect and verify information about wars we saw this in Syria so in Syria according to Google who recently released new product product called montage that collects and verifies information to there been more hours of footage of the Syrian more than the war itself so the word thing going on for 5 years is over 5 years of video footage just from the battle zone and post now the aftermath analyst stuff to so much no person go through look at all that verify all that analyze all of it but with the war in Ukraine there are lots and lots and lots of volunteers both in Russia and Ukraine side for patriotic marriages very determined it is curious and they collect all this information they publish it to analyze it and verify this is something that was journalists and policy makers in all the time for this failure of deadlines you have 4 million things going on but this is kind of strength for the open source community optics wide open sources in a minute and that there's so many volunteers in all work together for so this is something concrete as you

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see here is a nifty little table here on the left side is the military command of the Ukrainian government forces and the right of the 4 Russians evidence forces which supposedly are all Ukrainian people who's captured motor command from the Ukraine armories that are using it against you worst couldn't says they're much of miners and tractor drivers who were fighting against Ukraine ADC URIs are hard to see that there's a lot more on the right side the left side right there's a huge gap between the women being used versions evidence and of the Ukrainian forces so where this come from all you know where came from the sets this gives an opportunity to use them all this information flooding and from the 1st European war there with the because Internet all these photos and videos and witness accounts so you can go through and kind of solved this huge huge problem of documenting what equipment is coming over from Russia were came from has been used and so on this OK so what's open source information we talking talking talking talking open source information today so these kind of idea it is it really does have an inventory with open source programming software totally different realm but some kind of same idea in some ways so the most basic level of open source information is just media reports from CNN BBC TV newspaper radio news in from what's dooches new Internet TV station on in Ukraine I see convert this

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information we look at these reports solid research easy breezy and also the newer things that starting about 10 mil over 10 years ago you have lots lots of user generated content on YouTube and for example to another and on ships so you have all

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these and hours in our every 2nd hours and hours of coming in yeah more traditional social media that we know mu and sigma on Twitter Facebook me lot

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the cost for in social media serve non-Western once you're not so much an

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English-like contact and on the class the which are common in the former Soviet Union socially Russia Ukraine Kazakhstan on we will rights in China Hey you have mapping services so you can look at landmarks who's going on and over time with historical images on google maps again but of you historical imagery you can watch the change the landscapes over time so if a document is something Award for looking for example words and other or Yemen you can look at the destruction from year to year or days metadata today and help much images available Yandex which is the Russian version of of Google Maps they have their own satellite and also some i public sources so some I open so DigitalGlobe Interra server satellite companies they take so images and they seldom do you do maps they're using digital books digital broadband satellite in the sky the solid and the Google Maps me put up and Google Maps and Google Earth you can preview images from there that are not google maps so you may see if you look at picture when you may just have 1 picture right of the Google Maps will DigitalGlobe may have hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of other 1 to you can buy yourself a couple thousand dollars net a couple thousand fewer publish it for use at a previous as well the so this all

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is not tradition this is a little bit of nutritional journals of use all these things with normal traditional journalism but is a new twist to it if anyone can do this

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the whole point of open source research and why I think it's a very preachers preach the gospel of it is that anyone can go here in with a with any list anywhere there a connection to look at any of this stuff in available look at it and they can see what I see and what and if I'm a researcher I published this idea that I

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give the reader the audience everything I have here's my show I work that you don't just hold anything back thing I talked to source and on a server you don't have that is everything should be completely trustworthy because the reader him or herself can go in and verify and accessing information same added so that's the appeal of open source information it is it's ideally has builds trust between the reader and is provided so they give the example of just how ubiquitous this information is right so as I said earlier in Russia Ukraine most people are smart phones to G 3 to 4 G LTE at all over so there is NASA's in massive information rolling in everyday when we're researching on the Internet the entire propagate the shutdown image 17 this is for the researcher you have a couple guys here in the same brigade that provided the the book in the crisis in the shut down the plane aids to use a good picture you see that there there's a guy

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sleeping member number from the right so this is just some guys you know 20 organizing upload this photo the game whatever look at assist innocent as riding the bus going to the training area right I can suggestion of the dates not writing of the

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date the best in video if he does circadian that can be everyone Russian think it's all the funny videos of someone you know jumping out drunk or whatever right you see when you to there's millions of hours these things while there there's a reason for that is in Russia it's French adjacent jumps out of your car and sustain the 5 thousand dollars it broke my leg ever yet the dash can say now look at this year just some jump and so there's tons and tons and tons of this dashed information people where is the something cool going to work

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see much attention you see there's and tanks back there the sentential by you go home uploaded to get to 3 thousand views on YouTube in your minor so every Friday right so that's why you have this so

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you to code the highlights of things happen on the roads of specialist how we did image 17th researchers and all this stuff because it's a huge thing roles and the road the bathing at school put online said that we find a collective we can reconstruct route look license plates the were came from source of for that for different data anyways to that

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guy sleeping into the guys have a big nose that that that this is the exact same scene yeah captured from 2 points of views that 1 of the video to some guy run down the street what from soldier in the bus takes go have been with so much information out there you can look at the same scene the same event from 2 different angles sometimes is so much information out there and of course we can then take dispersed into the inside its use all your army soldiers are there get-out coming so like you know the whole the time is the half the time the license plate on the bus you're came from and so on so forth and so this gives access that's huge pollution information but we go back to the the tank thing of

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certainly had a machine example of kind of how you can pull information from what a traditional and non-traditional sources all once so this is a tank is interval infantry fighting vehicle obsoleting for for ease of use terms called loving us if you know German Levina me avalanche had someone wrote the word avalanche on this tank and this is geo-tagged you can regression in the city of Kaminski in Russia traveling Russia Ukraine water at so just some random woman name on but geotag I mean easier for us on August 22nd has a 14 just saw this again you saw something cool to picture that online and short on the conductor which is at the Russian Facebook

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OK so miracle pictures thank up stomach thought that was the end of it obtain and that some also took a video of this is that some started studied so which

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is a little bit which is really close to come chickens see where other pictures taken so that the video a sentential altogether and just like the it's like honor this 1st uploaded to YouTube because it was something

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cool site everyday use have you convoy 15 painful town will now actually is kind of every day now for them and to the video that someone had to see if the same tank with living

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up on the front of the little green dotted in Tennessee that the

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and so there we have unique identifier would also do other

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things like the wheels exact wheels is again kind of on that people you little details you can kind of track to that look at the

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in high killer data on because october november a couple months later you have some guys with guns and self holding right in front of the see right there again the gray market dead you have in this part of its partially obscured this is the Ukrainian per person separatist in Ukraine you see here profession is the in there you know which is been as People's Republic or this evidence so he's a soldier so here you have

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normal citizens taking videos what they thought was noteworthy the action participants in the

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fighting in the battle for uploading and over sharing which over sharing is the name of the game you give everyone is way too of open the sharing their pictures and videos and this is from I think I can approach

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a P a Reuters correspondent is AFP took this picture in the same tank right here this is from the other side I believe and it's and bombastic in regression again this is in Ukraine since evidence so so this Russian tank that was being transferred by the Russian army a spectrum by those normal people took pictures of it in Ukraine and we have proof of that both from uh traditional reporter like this you see the high-quality photo ever to

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stand in the fighting and stuff and here this is

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a site of a video from Ukrainian normal Ukrainian person to the video or on the town this is what

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OK and now here this is taken favoritism 15 February January if February during on the back cost but to all part of the votes of which is where huge battles took place during the 2nd during the negotiations of the cease-fire the 2nd most societies fair agreement in here back and you see are friend his travel so far now he's on the battlefields of Ukraine and this was stabbed to this model video was taken by a so my professional group called news front they do a lot of precipitous for Russian and cut propaganda battle videos so here now we have traditional journalists taken photo we have a Protista the fighting we have citizens from Russian citizens for Ukraine and this canister my professional of like propaganda age at which in video so the fight as well also 1 . 7 million years a lot of people so that take strong long way and now

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here uncomfortable most Pravda which is a on Russian and newspaper website TV station and they've taken picture of his well on the battlefield so here you have this merging of all these different sources of the same thing you can track it that that that the doughnut if you're a consider fewer journals are always make you may not have time to do this right you have time to watch all these battle that he has to go through all the geotagged photos in this town in that town and look in the social media accounts of random separate 2 soldiers but this guide

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scarier here is great his name in the sky he had no idea who he is he's in Ukrainian his anonymous but in his free time he did all this research

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by the way this is all I mind he made alive journal which

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to most of us as weird remnant of 2003 so really really popular Russian Ukraine you it alive journal enters the anonymously started writing about Russian tanks and Ukraine and he became probably the the expert on this like I can I ask them once a while ago you know the say forever in all get back to me is I guess it was here then here and having a little story like any like it is a number on a low everything about our topic that is induces free time publishers Journal he gathered all this information to this research he's become citizen expert about this they look funny when knows more about this in in journalism and journalists training extreme knows more about this and enough find so this kind of brings up a whole new bag of words about how you deal with verifying the information how do you collect

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it ethical concerns have always different groups property of doing this and it's it's this whole mess well on a touch a little bit about some bitterness and hopefully we can be a little bit of it out so we do is on a talk to you today about this guy little bit of guy current events and also that a handful of other groups that have emerged from this huge I was successful this huge pile of information that has been analyzed in all these groups popped up in Russia Ukraine England other places and they altogether it they have their own approaches when analyzing and collecting and verifying if someone at the end of Italy but my group knowing get and how we did our approach may be like more maybe like Leslie people that's that's your does the treated as an unbiased so I would I know I

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so I I talk to all these people I don't do interviews and stuff with them because I know most of ask them what's your mission why you do this what your methods what drives you where your ethical concerns and so on so this would ask I said he said the Russian properties Ukrainian so it's very patriotic see what's a show happening as country Russian propaganda favorite story for you you you're literate that and so here is talking about the crucified children which is infamous now-infamous report with this woman down here who I'm on Russian state television the closest cities 51 per cent owned by Russia's suppose enough but fertility and talked about how nm produce which is now Ukrainian how these be held by or no it wasn't on not hurt another city came about from my head by how at the Ukrainian forces crucified a child of 5 child in the town square because his parents were savages students for Ukraine over in the year the CD reporting this huge sensation and all you know R T in receding always show running about this here this poor woman whose child was crucified Jesus gave the Russian whatever was all made of those totally fake she just she's appeared like 3 other videos were she everything she's like professional now at this but was stolen it up right and so this is a this guys talking about how this very sensational propaganda when his approaches is if you read the recent stories in his report transitive and no find other their giant disk I hope you make some fairly simple claim the claim he can prove into 3 photos direct 50 pages of every single instance of this same can retain a rational back 2009 was on base and so on so forth is incredibly detailed and so that's where he's that's how he sees himself he doesn't see himself as a complete counterbalance to the emotional

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propaganda than the rich people take up guns and got transition that Ukraine and fight as a volunteer beside an alternative approach based on more logical FIL and processed now so not

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this is a group called lost armor our lost hyphen Palmer 0 you the British way A. R. M. O. U. R.

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so that common thing to set or some and if you see here the title sisters

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downscaling unknown training civil war you think if you ask Ukrainian but the war none of them most of them will say the Civil war they'll say it's a war of Russian aggression or whatever so just from the title you know right away what the political mentors as they see this is a civil war between Ukrainians Russians not really involved and that this is a service that collects a collates verifies all that and pictures and videos of Ukrainian equipment that's been destroyed a captured so they and their various servers everyday use more time I don't agree with what the theological pants but for the most part most information very very good and here you have an

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example of some of the stuff here you see for example the T. 64 a tank it was seen in the Donetsk airport the 2014 on them with January 10th another gerontophobia to return the 1st and so all the pictures they could find of this tank with the number on whatever detail so they collect hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of these but always built the 1 formation and the tried documents where is last seen some here's in the 17th Brigade here take as much information can make a real inventory for the training and separatists from armaments right

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and they use they use unit uses this they use the crowd and you and was matches to do the work it works incredibly well right see here is there and picture of gonna New Guinea boson a picture of this on Intel as a some piece so common here with 2 4 4 on the side and this guy replies as anyone have any information is if you know the whichever is group has and so on this person replies feel they have an ID number for every single tank so can match things up so they don't do very detailed and uncatalogued and again this is all open information during

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secret sources are either seeking information of battle age and social media profiles and all that stuff and here's another time example of this thing right here the survey vacating from discussed to account and also they did from this small step which is a must I think most of its news organizations they pulled from different sources and I've talked and what their

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goal model motivating factors are and they see it as a and service to the training so you train people see as a counterbalance to the Ukrainian narratives because a common refrain is not so much now but back into the 14 especially this guy right here I would hope often give reports about so I would say there's a fierce battle and that the data we destroy thousand separate as Russian tanks and we had no loss no losses it became a catchphrase Petunia that there were no losses and what these laws are regarded as saying yeah you have water losses like it is not fair to the families the soldiers were dying in battle his equipment Irving destroyed to say that there were no losses no losses no losses as they try to get more realistic portrayal what's really going on in the war and see the the loss over 7 abuses of women and all that but what the assessors the infamous for it very good but they go out a way to attribute things to be not Russian so they could agree assault but it's very good service most part need these don't exist in a vacuum is a standard earlier he goes the site all the time pools information across

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Jackson cross-references they do that for each other whatsoever was kind working this big big pool hall once is another group this is a group called the armed conflict intelligence seems it's a new group started in them has a 15 I believe that they were in a different name before then and the Russian group the base of Russia and and they try to do this it's very politically based revolve talk more of this later this right here is that I'm they broke about some pressure from being used by a site in Syria natural Russian federation soldiers operating at which goes against the narratives that Russian soldiers in the

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ground really do anything In addition to acting as advisers to us so here they publish in both English and Russian and here they have an example of and a soldier a Russian soldier who was injured fighting and the ball to the right so that the should earlier the elements ceasefire agreements and the other big battle going on there's a Russian soldier actual real Russian elicit servicemen who was injured during a fight because there were a lot of real Russians were fighting there anyone back to Russia to our hospital because you search the so while in the hospital and he had a visit from a different the minister of defense of Russia in the 2nd highest in a military official of to put in given this watch so at what they were doing with this is twofold 1 gathering of information all that stuff talk about what's going which really going on and also they have very

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expressed schools of showing the Russian people was going on and they're really really really don't like Putin and they are not shy about telling the world that he wanted to go so I'm while as sky and last summer not very expressively political they have no political goals real evidence to show the truth it these they have very expressed Goals in this is how they go about it is by researching and providing the evidence to the reader and then hopefully major decision and they use a little bit different methods than other places here because most places talking about here use pure curvature Open source approach all information every bit to be verified and found but he's come a hybrid approach they do that open source thing for most of it was a while decent human intelligence do the work those actually work sources almost whole for example I was a researcher soldier who died in the Ukraine Assyria correction enlisted soldier and they're trying to get picture the guys gravy live in some far-flung villages and they'll know where it takes 2 days to get there from Moscow by trainer whatevering other a ticket and who knows what I mean by that so what Facebook they found somebody looking village in is L 1 finds a cell soldier who died can you do me a favor take a picture a grave for me to become a work to this person and they got into the grave and they published so at Boeing had most the places we don't we tried we don't do that because cover crop widely all across but you see here they pull out all the stops for their investigations circle a hybrid open source and not a human source I guess research group there's another 1 this is kind more

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big data approach how like The Lost armor database but with mapping things so this is called life you a map that comply view a map that come before start a couple people with David had to do with as soon as the Crimean inex annexation happened the worst that started the 1 the with document was going on to provide for future stories are academic a curious people whatever about what happened every day to conflict and so people can actually see it so they deal in also the front lines which is actually ramp born see with a shifting from lines are as well so you can go on the site if you have your phone or whatever and you can go through chronologically every day the conflict and for every day they had this little from icons on the and the shifting battle lines issue what happened exactly then so right here there's a fire and then it's this is I'm avoid Davis was modulators and 15 or something like that and they found exactly was photos taken try here the right so they have the

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coronets there'll geo-located find by using maximum imagery or the self-reported location find exact location and they also provide the source so this is probably some tweet is so you can put them go to the original source was it but you know the big feature stream part will be kind of rough justice La sources go away and that archived but don't do so much

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so their goals they say here they try to provide while they seem everyone thinks of our truth but here they do it to have a big data approach of chronological and location-based events of mapping and on there so you can see where things are moving and um doing over time as well so to bit this project is still going strong and expanded passengers Ukraine it is serious other places as well now they've except a really quickly in the group this must all talk about

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until I get me Knowing and 1 not going to myself here and have informed upon is the Ukrainian or and that they wouldn was a place in talking about try not to do too much activism like CAT has little activism but it's not too strong and these guys are very very politically active and they have very very specific goals and so on so use almost all not all or almost always the research is still open source so you can go to verify every little bit information they have to make this session yourself so for example right here this is the

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Russian tank and they found their pictures of it from news reports Social Media Council on you know that by now but they also participate

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themselves so right here in the observer's frame from the palm is the tank storage based want and they work with the OSCE but peacekeepers monitors the peacekeepers mortars initial report cease-fire violations as well but they are Ukrainian nationalists they're very open was saying that what we're doing here is to support Ukraine's stop pressure it was a separate is defeated so everything they publishers with the slant of stop aggression terrorism and so on and

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they go further it right here they they put an ultimatum with this an ultimatum to Russian government of Cyprus for separatist with every day of you every soldier became soldiers killed will release a new bit of information and they they docks at the docks people so for example there's a Russian fighter pilot who is on to Spain in the flight service area and they release his name is addressed his family his family's names phone number everything so this goes beyond just over source vestigation it goes to very explicit activism slash automated so they then it it's in the very grave the black territory and

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here's the mission statement from the website I to the years it's easier to tidy up actor honest but sometimes they have the Kullback resources and all the information is a a simple but sometimes you have little the human sources they were fairly closely lot private Ukrainian state security system the information have it be coloured them because the phrases tree-like times it's not so great come with their the reliability of the and so on it can you read the rest of us here and I also speak a lot Ukrainian servicemen soldiers to get some assessment of things on the ground and this is how they see themselves right fighting as the

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forces of Mordor disparity in my physical so that's how they imagine themselves as crusaders rights and so they say they justify any other things that we may find but not enough to say well yes got countries being invaded by Russia so whatever we're doing is what you know neither 100 as bad as saying Russian tanks and the occurrence of make your own judgment about that self a leading the what we're doing that

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guess what we did a while ago to of all these services as information right us idea that loss domicile you have informed upon you have CAT cities conflict todesign you all these differences inflation and ever using their own standards of verification sometimes it push other information sometimes they don't and and honor so we try to do is to project or this is specifically with tracking Russian vehicles in Russia and Ukraine introdu crosses verification in kind of a big thing right medium data approach this is the announcement from the by monkey which is a brilliant finished on our team and who kind of red point on this project of looking why is this necessary

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well from both sides it the mass effects of Russia will say we have no military vehicles and you wise is necessary will Russia denies everything everything right there no track tanks and you think and there no food and so there's no conflict notably and his presidential spokesperson said we have not given a single take to the dentist People's Republic to the separatist groups which of course are back here 25 minutes ago Mr. representation it's clearly not true was some renegade Russian soldier hijacked attained can hijack the truck and drove into then thinking back without being arrested which I don't think happening but it's this is

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not a bad and the other 1 I've ever closed bad the other side to you this is kind of famous since that that happened or or a high of you've heard was the sound working you will uh Janet 0 god altogether In

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addition to demonstrate this problem and this is not a very friendly looking would get him at the chile take the whole thing 1st these are met the the certainly to take no him and he's saying we don't have the Russians in there was this evidence is not at all and that here they are this picture we brought that with this those are the things that all lined all that within within their area Ukraine In clearly that's that's what they are now in but as he said it's clearly what they are the the tanks Russian going the Ukraine OK well we know the takes new friendless was you think everything I made up earlier was fake but his his examples and

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slot Casey sues picture right here

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well this picture is old very old picture this suppose we came back with the secret exclusive

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as it was published in a few um like that it's like free beakers and conservative websites and as definite proof of

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Russians invading Korea so here they are this is supposedly it Israel or Gaza I'm not sure which is supposed to be full this area will whoever published article made big groups but because it's not actually and here you can see it's this is the exact same picture right this is publishing doesn't 12 and Russia didn't sending tanks in the Ukraine until 2 14 solar so as a time machine of right but this photo actually

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taken not as involved but is an 8 not in Gaza that Israel but and this also Cynthia by Georgia when the Russian and your that in a Russia Georgia were happy I Caesar Russians but they're going about a thousand miles away from Ukraine and Georgia and is a public this is an exact same scene you see here

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so the same and this is this pictures taken shortly after this 1 like that 30 seconds that this is the 2nd phone of they took that so OK Senator in here 1 pictures right but well myself up maybe just have

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1 wrong picture now he had more and so

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here's another 1 supposedly of Russian so of

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Was he says here Russian troops entering Ukraine and you see here it's actually again Russian troops entering George I'm going faster Georgian border so on both sides you have

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very dubious claims in crappy evidence and all that so we tried to cut through that and you a crowdsourced predict most things the best they're done through crowdsourcing not everything most things to use the crowdsourced verification platform culture test and it's made by need in immediate and and this as see verifying breaking news online allows you to post materials and have anyone the world get account they contribute to saying yes no maybe whatever so there's a video I really wish I quantum predicted URIs on the sheets of sort of thing so Crimea a big column of military command the Russian Federation is moving in the direction of Ukraine right so this is filmed on February 13 years and 15 in Crimea of Russian military comestibles leading north towards the Ukrainian more the worst perhaps going closer you created in Crimea so you think that that's all things and so will we wanna do is verify or not verify if this photo it this self-reported information is true is this Crimea are these Russian tanks or the Ukrainian is it really going in this direction was a really taken into the team always some are these Ukraine tension 2012 going to some exercises in Crimea right so we did the to some guy over here stocking and the American and says this is my 1st that as it almost certainly the same income filming junk which is the Crimean city right here and so I say I think this is real because there's another video with the same vehicles posted on a different account for different viewpoints that's probably a good indication that it's real video inverse ominous that answer for this crazy this guy is so good at what he does he says the 1st it looks like it's here and he did a google map strategy actually map he plotted the grout and the video matching the landscape features a satellite and so on he mapped onto Google Maps and shared I say yes great job I a nice it looks like the blaze and I get for next several go reject those quarters themselves make features match up their assigned to the same so and so forth and then he had found another that the better video and also looking the 2nd video that I mentioned as well so here we have the power of the and afterwards and give a curator for these 2 condense decided the presented evidence is good to say yes this is true or for no this is actually in 2008 here dummy so you can actually give a stamp of verified false in

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progress forever were unclear if it's still a murky so this is question you like I like how do you know for sure some social media is true some video or photos true is not whatever was a good way of providing information to people and propels you showing your work says it's verified in you disagree with me think of my reason why that is verified is wrong we can go in there and you can come and tell Manetti at a time OK so what we did is we collected in collected in collected and collected all these videos have Russian-Ukrainian of video of the commemoration Ukraine dissolve friend that living in that avalanche and take from earlier so we then got all the information we verify injectors step 1 verify it be verified every single citing and after 2 verified the plug to soak which is fat-free free platform which does better really William plotted and you make get a card you have these different fields environment maps we can handle hundreds and hundreds not thousands trapped thousands thousands of or you will have a 200 the hundreds of pieces of data and we made all these fields right here so for example and it was viewed to reject that we're will verify that this was filmed on August 29 years 14 and we track everybody put on there so we tracked every single individual truck contain that was in the video from the license plates and so on so for numbers whatever where Baltasare need so we have exact points were sold unique units which are of unique is a very very noticeable features like shoes writing on the side the numbers on the whole or so 1 thing you identify and if applications remarks as well right so there's a motherland thing with several did like for the motherland on the side and origin right and make a reference back to the verification report record what we use unchecked us to verify stress so you can go out there if you think so this information is wrong you can follow that link I'll go back to were verified and see if you your suspicions right not like the original video and we archived all these later on YouTube channel be saved all these villages people take these are all the time right we see with a spatially original video with all the metadata on it the description of of we uploaded to our channel worries it's like safe for safekeeping provided also map where it would take place OK and then we can

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track unique units with all these different little entries linking you see where they've bingo and this is that I think are suddenly just out tracking and there 3 citing of a right here 1 in Russia stars and it's from the right side we have exact quarter to be applied onto maps on August 29 and then about 6 months later the popup in Ukraine and we that we have a confirmed sighting of all the fun information leading some as long as you can go and study yourself maybe you correct you mean we are our felicity if you think so right so these sightings and the the map and so we

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have lots and lots and lots lots lots lots of these here's an example of ID with you by the numbers there were piling up something come with the location and the takes whatever's in there and

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using so you can categorize these really easily and search for specific datasets so for example if you're trying to research and so it makes right so sentence shut down July 17th 40 what someone look at all the military convoys that rolled into dance which is nearby were shut down on July 14th early on July just 14 and only looking at the PCs yards that ever personal carriers and I just about the next parts so I can put on the locally category the month and the reference occasion and it'll give me every example that we found the verified and uploaded and and here's another kind of a more typical

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example on here this is in Russia license plate thank you we we can use that we can tackle license plates to all the cargo carriers writers as Russian Russian soldiers smaller soldiers put this on his contacted page not here 0

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his professions army and is on November the 1st is a 14 and not too long and it

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shows up with the rebel flag half-line high right there posing next to again is all from

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such even these actions soldiers suppose it and

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here again to key of has says on the side the thing drive number right I think is and then it's and so

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the things you can look for a federation patterns over time is this is some old old photo from which is not a over you see little red mark her as a tactical mark that they use in certain brigades in Russia and Ukraine as well to keep track of something's going to make separate so you hear the 27 Tank Brigade is made up 6 tinkering is real 1 so you have a certain market there's you keep track yourself when you a whole number in the market right hold

39:51

their orders narratives and says an

39:55

entire freezes poison unadjusted don't drink it that's that's the whole point of but in here you

40:02

have the L 1 on which is look at lots People's Republic and you have a tank or a I think it's an APC the exact syntactical marks on there so must the enhanced rebels really admire this market project but that but they themselves lost a huge fans of squares of 3 . 2 little thoroughly in artists and are thing

40:21

of this is captured by Ukrainian soldiers eventually so here is an kept here is 1 of the

40:26

lost people had at the rebels and later the

40:29

Ukrainian soldiers and capture this from the and here is market here the skin and this

40:36

is kind of a funny thing and you go inside this our personnel carrier Indian betas 14 deep demobilization so some soldiers on board Russian soldier was sitting in their he scratched and married I could lead the army on my on May 28 14 on the days in any kind of you know where this road trip so that's I spent

40:56

almost inherited when Ukraine like a tiny bit of cereal is a little bit so we done have this approach we use a little bit with the fresh strikes in Syria so we but we we did this we just use really is once piece information that is from the actual Russian Ministry defends itself so they say that we're taking fake proved from whatever will we got from your YouTube channel so you the ones provided thinks of so in here you have a map to worry track I a few factors so for 1 when you have Russian history defense and rebounding ISIS School I 1st one this area they said were attacking ice only ISIS registry global probable that and so we did is we verify the location of the center bombing right they say were bombing rock of a boy Arauca then using looking that video we can locate the buildings in the streets river in the video than cross-references Salah imagery and say yes truly to job restaurant rock and or we may look at we find out is actually some you know of rebel-held town that's right next to the Russian airbase right that's to arouse with rocker so it's curious symbol that Russia so here's an

42:05

example of a mother their part this is a 22 where were in my country pronounced will refining son and heir segment will refining facility and factory in the region of them house can be I know my logistic Arabic so they suppose we had a problem AM ISIS will refining facility right great job picks up the flow the money the job whatever thank so here's a

42:27

video this is straight from the YouTube channel of

42:30

the Russian students and boom bonded to the job will now be poor they have no well money and

42:38

well we defined and this is pretty easy find a free distinct features and this has been taken very long defined the videos we match all the features with the real map with the video

42:50

and the we plot on a map of where things are so we found that that the great great great minority of things were reported correctly so we look for 2 things 1 that the bombs were they said they bombed like was a really Morocco was it somewhere else and who was a target right so they say the bombing Isis in some city by Aleppo will is the ice is present all about priority action bombing you know I'm a loser which may be of bombing user great if you prefer the bombing terraces that right but still the little bit so that have different degrees of truth every is true yes you get the same target in the right place or you got the right target wrong place the wrong target in the right place and so on we mapped all this again was so room the Duke of data collection on this all in this and the thing I

43:37

hear it was actually a water is water processing might not um well it was 1 large water processing plants left in Syria the bond it he was on a few days and then as an evil by 1st in the meantime so was not well I don't know there's an accident purpose but it was not all refinery

43:55

and in the how built is really fast the really cool part about this about all these Ukrainian Russian groups that have started doing this research the war pressures of you know sitting tanks and soldiers in Ukraine is now they're doing other things so this is CAT the conflict intelligence in there they did research on Turkish bases in Iraq prior to the Turks and Kurds are like each other the some of Turkish spaces and Iraqi Kurdistan of in the mountains and it's a big big big no-no for Turkish soldiers posted of social media but of of course they do it's a not of aggression wants to either they detail so here have if you know Turkish don't from scene talking there

44:36

right here's firing a mortar so here you can see in document feel some packer whenever you can find corroborating evidence from the soldiers and spam accounts and here they are with a very nice

44:46

landscape which is very easy to find with Google

44:49

Maps for this match them up so that we know exactly who did most of my public knowledge or anybody may not be exactly where that base located because the oversharing soldiers and all go through

45:00

lighting realities Professor other crowdsourcing projected on the Czech test and tracking the

45:06

firing of 2 missiles ready other mainly US providing inter take nuzzles and that of course aggressor given to my collapse and and all these bad much much much worse people the so-called moderates listen to the so called not moderates and it's it's a big mess and they're using these against our allies and it's here so we're doing is we're documenting and every firing is it's great propaganda they take videos these days ago prose on they do all this crazy stuff every time if fire release a put on you to because it's look schools propaganda to join our group not that the we have these missiles right so we course we use information then we document who's using it hopes right so right April 7th

45:47

right so this at home is the white PG which is 1 the main group fighting advices and here they're using it against ISIS you have 30 people using this by different groups are using against God so my

46:00

allies real allies or enemies kind of easier because it's Syria nothing is really is the same sex so we try to keep track of all that stuff because you know this is kind of water I'm always airstrike things were verified pressure we do the same thing with the UK and the quality

46:17

most of the US coalition they are and publish much less than the Russian Ministry defense version this advances in your our are look at us were great whatever these their little bit more and restraint and and they also when they hit

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something they they actually say where it would hit and we been working with and a group of air worse worse that work really really cool organization and they do a lot of open source work but it's tracking and you know this status of they look at the civilian casualties these air strikes so we've worked well but with them of saying OK here's an air strike a coalition airstrike hit the ISIS factory OK but how many like OK you but 6 ice outside the so 3 civilians who were in there as well so try to combine the information from the the human situation the ground with have the eye in the sky satellite all that stuff OK so now I have

47:08

some yes have any questions I have about I think 15 minutes or so maybe 10 or 15 minutes for questions for QA it the 1st of all

47:27

thank you sold it with your will be it no is

47:34

that works great secure but I'm you know enlightenment and a secular through talking quite oppressive uh quick and the date and the question the that you think even the US ambassador to Ukrainian posted a picture on his Twitter a column to showing Drummond battle tanks Ukraine yes you welcome it and I put this on a block and running a blog and the fears and my readers

48:02

can accept that both at an exercise Germany 5 years ago it's a video look it up so even the US side is not prone may be prone to these errors what I'm wanna know about it's part of the well and you will speak speak people would call this valuable tell what you're

48:21

providing so you would expect that the forces that we would try to prevent this kind of information do you see any efforts to curb column on social media pictures on information whatever so uh military doesn't like what you doing I suppose and what all the do or all the doing anything against you compute you thanks get there we've noticed is the stardom isn't isn't 14

48:52

the different going at what's the um three-day actually July 14th 3 days before the dynamics thing and what people in that we were involved in that because the status of 3 days before but on that ever since then we've seen a decrease in like over sharing especially Russian soldiers so it is 14 began to as in 15 everything 0 my god they had everything out there no restraint like the whole world was just had their eyes closed right now it's much harder with little to of there's very few compared to the chosen 15 is much fewer Russian soldiers in Ukraine the Syria it can combination probably of the from the dead S. so servers much worse there but every once in a while you like the Special Forces robber really good people they still want small share stuff people do with pseudonym right cells don't have a fake name in the post on there but it's not hard find is a mainly the attack on accidently or something has about the market decreasing over sharing and why home maybe they're just they've releases reports about you know Russian so you XSLT with the Ukrainian townsite behind them right so it can obviously there but in Syria it's kind of it's hard to gage is it's totally a on component of a psychology shift of the i don't 1 over ship someone made this trouble with my boss or if it's just they're more of their less grants kind of the grounded theory more special forces in most parts most of the the the situation is much different 0 as well but on the way that for example on the way they go to the Crimea and through a symbol to the Bosphorus to Turkey and we found that I came in to tell yummy fuzzy found the soldiers taken picture to themselves with that of the bridge at the bridge simple behind them so there's some things they will still that leverages the we knew they were going there that we can track them in their of their fellow soldiers we know exactly which units that after the due date hi thank you for your presentation and

50:55

then I think thank you for a presentation on anything really great I live in Russia since the

51:00

2013 so what I'm quite aware of this problem and on both sides and I I was wondering and what kind of reactions do you get from the well Russian civil society we we know how active for example Russia is also in Germany on on Facebook for example that but of course there might be other kind of reactions from people to walk out grateful that your combining all the state does or who are not taking you but but I'm more interested on the set of this the side of the um reactions to work things you yes that for the most part it's the opposition minded

51:38

people in Russia will take all the help they can get this kind of thing right because it's hard to get the word out or times with and russia I saw the russian opposition figures like Alexander von me I and the the Deutsche skewness of the opposition when you made the publishers of constantly then interviews on the lowest and so like that right there very grateful and then Ukrainians still society which recognizable site was really think 2 years ago when now really is and it's really blossomed and I think that this is 1 reason why this has work so well is that we've this Russian and Ukrainian especially young men on readily computer literate like they're all there on it right and they play well the tanks all the time and they know exactly which changes this cause there been very you know military project and so there is a big movement people doing this on their own maybe inspired by cells idea maybe just the school to look for tanks Areva but there's something really clicks I think with Russian-Ukrainian secession is is that have and all that and the little bit different you know how does in during the US don't have that same kind of like nerdiness over weapons and stuff and military stuff but in Russia and Ukraine it's really a big deal and so the blood people are able to recognize right away exact we're talking about it can join and about so in which is at a very simple question how did you

52:55

match the satellite images to Google Maps assignment of other here so as to get ahead a match the satellite images to geographic information yeah and that that is color geolocation is a world of term the looking to be geo there Geo world located find out and it's sometimes it's very

53:16

reasonable right remember that from water processing plant was that was obvious practice in the roads max exact and that's intended to really really hard you would have a very tiny little details every case of little with different from most part of but for the most part you look for and any signifying things on grammable thing right street science storefronts whatever it also and socially and like the Turkey example right there the Turkish soldiers raided the elevation background and you can use different tools on google Earth check the elevation of the land that and some features may change right you may be looking at a photo from prison 13 announced his and 15 in Google Maps flexibility has been demolished right you look under the circle imaging go back and try to find 1 that it believes that there look like it was still there but it's kind of it's not our form but it's kind of it a process that you learn in practice it practice it practice that if you a site had only get that come we have lots lots of user guides of case studies kind of very easy once very complicated ones and so for example and were trying to capture the match this right this mask and we can use Google Earth and measure the height of the minarets and you can match that of the shadow on the cellular dreams all this fancy stuff right so it it's really talking like that were simple just that's obvious the same building but with the match and thank you

54:35

very much we're talking and then I think the work you do is very interesting and I just have 1

54:40

question you can about your place in in the as in source of news in this huge Olshen of news the how do you navigate your because the you'll position I mean there's so many especially with this thing with any other news stories stays this just an the large amounts of information sources and you you just 1 of them how the whole unit and 1 of them that's I think there's a little bit more research than others and so how do you you navigate your own position within that oceans yeah law we don't do it so localize because I consider severely rely on

55:16

the crowd so much so for example giving

55:19

a plug here at tonight were publishing a report on the book which should dynamic 17 and a big portion that research was instigated by of this random form message board for Smolensk Russia and they did have this 3 here page thread about image 17 and so posted they noticed how all the the there's a dent in the side panel of the book that down the plane and there's an identical dead and this Russian book from 2010 fervently as and at that spot and then we kind of all that lead and then we found when all the soldiers on the collective photos from back going back 6 years of of of of so let times or the navigators 1 through we have guides you can point things out to us because we by now think we have enough rate name recognition to whenever something happens and footer the like do not going Canada a caveat about this rating you look out for this so a lot of it is of own kind of been doing this for a few years ago know would work in another part of it is of people help us out and crowdsourcing clues and leads us about that

56:22

all thanks again for your process demonstration of a rather practical

56:27

question on the practical aspects of which language skills do you actually have that the link yeah we have quite a few we have I know why Russian I wiII have Russian

56:38

consideration literature no 1 no 1 would tell you give a humanities degree in anything I said Russia literature grad school and I do that in we have a few and you're Germans and Ukrainian speakers we have few Dutchmen and French Arabic and it was really a steering diner team who can do and that the pull which Bulgarian we have also languages it we need a new 1 with ass but it's so subtle it for each recruiting a person 1 more question for just raise your hand

57:15

an old woman it of but button I mean you rely on a

57:26

lot of external people who do that sort of as a hobby but as an organization how do you work and how do you finance this whole work that

57:37

you do and the me how we find that people who were doing it or the least I went like Our well I think that that people more less recruit themselves that yeah I like in the like in the headquarters like how

57:51

how do you I mean this is a lot of work and that I suppose it's not your hobby is let's full-time job right soluble for me we we have to

57:59

people who do for by me and Elliot founder we're paid we do this full-time but were the only ones everyone else is a volunteer to the the hobby I did this as a hobby I was working in normal boring job at a bank for a couple years and am I discuss the hobbies I went home and my wife got mad at because I been 3 hours of appears in the home doing all this tank and books are forever but it's like a it's a it's a hobbyist how like a game the conifold leads to the narrative that develops coming here I sit in literature sycophancy this right there certain narrative that develop in you see that same thing in different places you've all the threads in this chemical at its relies on italica as again the world's most important video game Australia and matching clues and finding things in my on scavenger hunt the 8 it's fun and he try sometime this month and will will question will get higher and thanks a lot for this and i which just wanted to for a lot of work on the previous question 19 and for you you really entered I feel it's really interesting indeed that as a as a previous speaker I asked what do you do with this information how do people get to know about old this sending this whole much information as you show 2 days for bag and that all over the you know on the Ukrainian side a lot of Russian side a lot on b and there again the European side as well here and How and he had he been to aligned to work with an actual out some settle all Strassel how can you you know like have seen energies ill get the DVD I get some wagon white have yet we found for core investigation the consider attribute everything open-source everything verifiable about blocks the light energy to turn a partner with real journalists provide not really a real journal from functionalist journalists of who could follow up things that we can't so for example are my favorite example is some some some Ostrovsky army devices he did all those dispatches Crimea and and we found the 1 Russian soldier and we wanted to we worked with him um and he visited every place the sky was in retreated every physical the selfies and in Moscow than other border that Ukraine recreated each of in each 2 places that he went to his home city in Siberia I am not store hundred find of right to give the do the real journalism document or skip that follow so what we're trying to right now delicate is like we do this open source of particularly those of our right is a dead end to it you can't you can't go that next step of the the knockout punch of lead so were doing all the Mory's were stories or providing the material the service and we hope that journals will pick that up and go the next level and knock on doors Call phones do some real work digging things and so we did this little bit with a man in a corruption investigation recently this was treated Ukrainian and prosecutor in there his wife posted pictures of a big huge house and i'd valid Ferrari 1st 13 year old son and they had occasion the all dies away he was fired a year ago and he was making like 12 thousand dollars a year was a salary yet he always teachings so we found that lead on social media with open evidence but then we worked with the news organization Ukraine it with the next level they dug and they were to be top the sources they look to the documents that we can get to the doctor's door and all the fluid drone over his house even to look at things so that's kind of like we have the 1st step for doing the raw materials for a story there's only so much we can do but sometimes help more often the people who were the real journalists can do elevated to the next level OK and faces question here so think that's it thank you very much I think it's

Inhaltliche Metadaten

The conflict in eastern Ukraine was the first European war fought with the ubiquitous presence of the internet. With this war came a deluge of information, giving rise to dozens of amateur sleuths who compiled photographs and videos from social media to form coherent narratives. This presentation will explore the power of the crowd in collecting, verifying, and presenting data from Russia's wars in Ukraine and Syria.